We wanted to cruise to the Greek islands and chose MSC Magnifica. After the first night my daughter woke up with several bug bites. We moved to a second cabin were she managed to trap a bed bug and take it to customer service. Someone came to inspect the cabin and it must have been heavily infested as we were forced to move immediately although it was past midnight. The third cabin was below the pool deck and we couldn’t sleep due to people jogging or walking all through the night and the movement of furniture beginning at 6:00 am. On the fourth cabin we found bed bugs on two different occasions, one we found on the pillow and killed it and it was full of blood. MSC compensation for all the aggravation; lack of sleep, rest and relaxation; packing and unpacking; bug bites; and damaged clothing sent to laundry: a mere $240, even though it was also disputed with their Miami office. Avoid this ship and this cruise line by all means!
Venice is a great departure port. Lots of history, art, St Mark’s Cathedral and Square. Embarkation did not go very smoothly. They couldn’t find our reservation and when they finally did about 2 hours later their system had a glitch and that cabin was not available until the next evening and we stayed in a lower category cabin for the night. Disembarkation was very smooth and did not take very long. The dining was average, servers were very good but very slow. The dining room didn’t had too many choices on the menu. The entertainment was very good, especially for a smaller ship like Magnifica. The service was very good especially our cabin attendant. The ports and shore excursions were excellent, beautiful ports and an ample supply of excursions to choose from.
Because of our experience with bed bugs and customer service I will never choose another cruise with MSC.
See above for bed bug problems. Cabins were all balcony cabin which were very comfortable and had plenty of space.
Bari is not the most exciting city and the cruise line should consider substituting that port for a different one